Dennis Nett / The Post-StandardSyracuse's Kris Joseph shoots a 3-pointer from the corner in the second half of Friday's game against North Carolina at Madison Square Garden.

New York — Scoop Jardine sailed through the lane and attempted a layup that rimmed out. In the scrum of bodies beneath the Syracuse basket, Kris Joseph’s hand reached above the rim and guided the ball inside it.

He immediately raised his hand, as if to acknowledge that he was the author of that tip-in.

“It was me, you know what I’m saying? It was my bucket. You gotta let’em know,” he joked later.

That tip-in gave the Orange a 54-40 lead in a game SU would eventually win over North Carolina. It also unscrewed the cap on the basket for Joseph, who went 0-for-4 in the first half, but finished the game with 12 points on 5-of-12 shooting.

“I got an offensive tip-in and that kind of made me feel a little bit better, made me feel a little bit more comfortable in there,” he said. “That was just kind of like the ice-breaker. I wish it would have happened in the first half.

“I think I help out a lot on the defensive end, but sometimes it just takes me awhile to get started on offense. Better late than never, that’s how I see it as.”

Included within Joseph’s contributions were seven rebounds, two assists and one steal. He did not commit a turnover in 30 minutes.

He also sank two of his four attempts from beyond the 3-point arc. Those two threes, coming as they did in the second half, helped bury the Heels.

“I worked a lot on it this summer,” Joseph said of his 3-point shooting. “Why work if you’re not going to use it, that’s how I feel.”

Said SU coach Jim Boeheim: “I was waiting for him to make a three. I told him he was either going to make one soon or he isn’t going to be taking them. He made a few. We needed to get those threes to get that separation.”

Tall Tar Heels
North Carolina has six players on its roster that stand 6-foot-9 or taller. Four of them are 6-10. One is an even 7-feet tall.

It seemed on Friday as if the Heels kept sending waves of tall, lanky big men into the game. All those big bodies grabbed 10 first-half offensive rebounds. But SU’s pair of bigs — the 6-foot-9 Rick Jackson and Arinze Onuaku — made it a point to get more assertive in the second half.

“I actually like playing against the big guys,” said Onuaku, who scored 15 points — 13 of them after intermission. “You know they’re gonna check you one-on-one and you know that it’s you against them.”

Onuaku and Jackson credited SU’s defense inside for solidifying the win over UNC. SU outscored the Heels and all those big guys 46-28 in the paint.

Onuaku and Jackson credited SU’s defense inside for solidifying the win over UNC. SU outscored the Heels and all those big guys 46-28 in the paint.

"They were looking to get their bigs the ball every time down court," Jackson said. "You just had to be in there big. They went after all the rebounds. You had to go GET the rebounds. It was a fight. But we came out on top."